


Staring You in the Face

by bayoublackjack



Series: Love in London [21]
Category: Royal Pains
Genre: Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, F/M, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Multiple Crossovers, POV Divya Katdare, Reunion Sex, Secret Children, Unrequited Crush
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-04
Updated: 2014-12-04
Packaged: 2018-02-28 02:58:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2716391
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bayoublackjack/pseuds/bayoublackjack
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Divya’s joy at Rafa’s return is short lived when she realized that the two of them don’t know each other as well as she thought they did.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Staring You in the Face

In the weeks since she had last seen him, Divya had been eagerly anticipating Rafa’s return to England.  Their reunion took place in the Garden Suite at the Royal Garden Hotel in Kensington and Divya was a ball of nerves when she arrived at his door until Rafa greeted her with a warm smile.

“Hola querida.”

Divya didn’t even try to tame her own smile.  “Hello Rafa.”  Rafa stepped out into the hallway long enough to pull her into his arms and kiss her passionately.  Divya wrapped her arms around his neck, meeting his kiss with equal fervour.  “Welcome back,” she replied breathlessly when they both pulled back to breath and he kicked the door closed.

The two of them didn’t waste any time getting reacquainted in the manner to which they had both become accustomed.  They came together again in a heated kiss, Divya’s hands at the back of his neck and Rafa’s arm wrapped tightly around her waist.  He lifted her up and carried her back to the bedroom that had a huge window overlooking Kensington Gardens.

Clothes were quickly discarded and they lost themselves in one another.  Divya sank into the bed as Rafa hovered above her.  Every touch and kiss and caress, the sensation of his fingers, tongue and skin against hers and the way their bodies moved in sync brought Divya back to the intoxicating couple of weeks they shared before his departure.

Rafa affected her in a way that she wasn’t quite prepared for.  His presence was dizzying and all consuming. He was spellbinding.  This man…this one man had the power to make her go from wanting to talk about horses to ripping her clothes off and screaming his name in a matter of second.  She felt uninhibited when she was with him.  She felt alive.

The passion burned hotter and faster than it had in the past and before long they were tangled in both each other’s limbs and the sheets of his bed.  Divya chalked it up to the fact that they had gone so long without being together, but either way, she had no complaints.

“Oh, I’ve missed this,” she confessed breathlessly as she laid her head against his bare chest.

“As did I,” Rafa said as he stroked her hair lovingly.  “And I’ve missed you.”

Divya shifted her head to look him in the eyes.  “Please tell me you’ll be in London longer this time.”

Rafa sighed.  “Unfortunately no.  It’s only for a few days.”

Divya groaned and hugged him tightly.  “Then we’ll have to make the most of it.”

“Mmm.”  Rafa kissed her temple and caressed her back.  “Will you spend the night?”

Divya shook her head.  “I can’t.  I have…obligations,” she told him vaguely.

She felt bad about keeping him in the dark about Jeremiah, but she’d tell him eventually.  She just needed to be sure of where they were going with their relationship.  She was beginning to feel something strong for him, but until she knew if Rafa reciprocated her feelings Divya was reluctant to open up to him about her arrangement with Jeremiah.

“You should come to Argentina sometime,” he said suddenly, breaking her from her thoughts.

“You want to show me your home?”

“Si, you’ll love it.”

“Tell me about it.”

“I have an estate in Buenos Aires,” Rafa explained.  He pushed an errant strand of hair away from her face while he continued to caress her back.  “Plenty of room for the horses.”

“We could finally go riding,” Divya pointed out.

Rafa laughed softly.  “My thoughts exactly.”

“So who looks after it while you’re away being Rafa Correia, international polo star?” Divya asked teasingly.

“Well there’s a staff that looks after the horses, but otherwise it’s just my mother there most of the year except for when the little one comes for a visit.”

“The little one?” Divya questioned.  She felt his muscles tense and she immediately lifted her head to look him in the eyes.  “Little one,” she repeated.  “Who are you talking about?”  The question had been asked, but Divya wasn’t sure she was ready for an answer and yet deep down she already knew what he was going to say. 

“My son.”

“Your son…”  Divya’s voice trembled slightly as she sat up straight in bed.  “You have a _child_?” It had been too perfect.  He had to have a flaw.  She had been anticipating the other shoe dropping and this was it.

Rafa sighed softly.  “Yes.”

Divya felt a strange combination of emotions churning inside of her.  Shock.  Denial.  Disappointment.  And perhaps most surprisingly, anger.  “How could you keep something like this from me?” she demanded.  She had secrets.  That much was true.  But a fake fiancé was nowhere near the level of having a secret child stowed away on another continent.

“I didn’t keep it from you intentionally, it just never came up,” Rafa said quickly.  “Besides, if I mentioned him to every woman I’ve slept with—”

“Is that what I am?”  Divya cut in.  “Just another woman you’ve slept with?” she asked bitterly.  “Another fan of the great Rafa willing to drop her knickers after a few pretty words about horses and how much we have in common?”

“No,” Rafa insisted.  “I didn’t mean it that way.”

“Funny, because I suddenly feel _exactly_ like that,” Divya retorted angrily as she crawled out of bed and quickly began to redress.

“Divya, wait!  Por favor!” Rafa pleaded.  “Just let me explain.”

Divya didn’t stop.  His voice was drowned out by the sound of her heart pounding in her ears.  A small part of her wanted to cry, but she refused to give him the satisfaction of bringing her to tears.  Before she knew it, she was back in her car.  All the way home, she was silently fuming.  She felt as though she’d explode if she didn’t let it all out, but every time she tried to ring one of the girls’ their lines were engaged.  By the time she reached the townhouse, she was properly worked up and flung her clutch bag down on the counter upon entering the kitchen.

Jeremiah had been sitting at the table on his laptop and looked at her with a startled expression.  “Are you okay?”

Divya exhaled sharply.  “No, Jeremiah.  Not really.”

“Is there something I can do?”

“I could use a drink.”

Jeremiah moved to stand.  “Tea?”

“I was thinking something stronger.”

Jeremiah paused.  “Coffee?”

Divya cracked a smile.  Somehow being around him seemed to defuse some of the tension she had built up.  “Actually…tea is fine.”  She settled into a chair next where he had just been sitting and watched him move around the kitchen.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Jeremiah asked once he delivered her tea to her and returned to his seat.

Divya sighed softly and stared into her tea.  “I met someone,” she confessed.

Jeremiah’s expression was mostly impassive save for a slight crease in his brow.  “Oh?”

“Mmhmm.  A bloke.”  Divya nodded and cupped her mug in both hands.  “Someone…” she sighed.  “Someone I thought I knew, but it turns out that he wasn’t who I thought he was at all.  Nor was he who I wanted him to be.”

The crease in Jeremiah’s brow extended.  “Who did you want him to be?”

“I don’t know.”  Divya shrugged.  “The one I reckon.”

“The one what?”

Divya met his eyes.  “ _The_ one.  You know…my soul mate.”

“I’m familiar with the theory.”

“You don’t believe in one man and one woman?”

“Besides the fact that it’s exclusive of same sex couples and people in polyamorous relationships, it also operates under the assumption that the widowed and divorced abstain from involving themselves in subsequent relationships,” he replied evenly.

Divya quirked a brow.  “You could have just said no.”

Jeremiah nodded.  “Yes. Well…no.”

“Surprisingly, I do believe.”

“Why is it a surprise?”

“I never really thought about relationships before,” Divya confessed.  “Raj and I were arranged to get married for as long as I could remember, so my focus when I was younger was always on coursework and exams.  Then it was my career and the hospital.”  She took a sip of her tea then set the cup back down.  “Even so, I think a part of me always knew that Raj wasn’t the one,” she explained.  “I know it sounds cheesy, but I liked to think that if I ever met the person I was meant to be with somehow I’d just…”

“Know,” they said in unison.

Divya met Jeremiah’s eyes and he quickly looked at his laptop.  “Anyway.”  She lifted her tea to her lips once more.  “Rafa clearly wasn’t that man.”  She took a sip.  “Maybe there isn’t a man for me at all.”

Jeremiah glanced up again.  “Do you really believe that?”

“No.”  Divya sighed softly and set her cup down again as she met his eyes.  “But maybe Tish is right about me.  I’m terrible about these sorts of things.  I could literally be looking the perfect man for me right in the eye and I wouldn’t even realise it,” she joked and picked her tea up once more.  “Isn’t that tragic?”

“Yes…tragic,” Jeremiah agreed.  He kept his eyes on her for a moment longer before returning his work.


End file.
